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Wine Description
The Story
Renewing an ancestral tradition in the Médoc, in the early 1980s Philippine de Rothschild decided to plant a few acres of the vineyard with white grape varieties.
The sandy, gravelly soil is planted with Sauvignon Blanc (53%), Semillon (35%), Sauvignon Gris (11%) and Muscadelle (1%), with a density of 9,000 vines per hectare. 50% of the wine is matured in new oak barrels. Rich, complex and elegant, Aile d’Argent, despite being produced in very limited quantity, has quickly become a standard-setter for lovers of fine Bordeaux white wines.
Aile d’Argent, a children’s story
Let us read these lines written by Philippine de Rothschild, telling us the story of a name rich in memories.
“Aile d’Argent… Two unusual words that floated up from the depths of time, a link between the past and present, between my father Baron Philippe de Rothschild and myself. When I was a little girl, my father made up a fairy tale for me, the hero of which was a magic teapot. Its incredible adventures enchanted me and beguiled my childhood. The teapot was called Aile d’Argent, Silver Wing.
War broke out and my father was arrested. In prison, from memory, he wrote down the story, which he called Aile d’Argent la Magique (Magical Silver Wing), the title under which it was published by Gallimard in 1947.
Aile d’Argent… I am glad that the words which once inspired my dreams are taking on form and colour again.”
Vintage 2020
In Bordeaux, the heat resulted in early flowering. Also, this led to an early harvest after a very hot summer. As a starting point, there is great maturity in the grapes, and one can expect a more opulent vintage than in the last few years.
The summer this year has been the warmest since 1959, yet the rain has fallen at the right times during the growing season. The harvest took place two weeks before the norm and will yield grapes with high potential alcohol and the lowest acidity since the 2003 vintage. As they say in Bordeaux: "It has been a good and extreme growing season which hopefully also produces great wines".
